Help- Is the strep gone, when to re culture?

[dcmom]

Hi everyone! This forum is so helpful, and you all are such wonderful parents...

 

My daughter has had her first (we think) pandas episode (I explained on a previous post). We caught the strep about 4 weeks in. She has been on a cephelosporin for 13 days. After the first 3 days we saw a huge improvement, almost back completely to herself (we were also doing advil at that time). Then at about day 5, there was a regression. No where near as bad as original, but definately more anxiety and anger, and OCD stuff a little worse. She also looks pale and tired to me (we had discontinued the advil). We restarted the advil yestarday, to see if it was a coincidence.

 

Any thoughts? Did advil noticeably help your kids? Could she be fighting off another virus even on the abx(there is a ton going around at school, and her older sister seems to be coming down with something)? Could the abx not be completely knocking out the strep? How soon after completing abx would you advise a strep test? If that is negative, should I then do another one a few weeks later?

 

Thank you all for your help! We are seeing Dr. Perlmutter on Wed. I am hoping for her opinion on whether this is PANDAS, that may help with our pediatrician.

I am planning on using the rest of the bottle of abx (probably will give her a total of 3 weeks), and re testing for strep about a week later. Then I guess I will keep a close eye on her behavoirs.

 

Also, and advice for siblings? This has been stressful for her sister (age 8). Julia's temper tantrums have been upsetting to her, and Julia has also been uncharacteristically mean at times.

[dcmom]

Ok- well her sister was just diagnosed with strep today.

 

I guess this could be the reason for Julia's backslide in progress?

 

I guess we (parents) should get tested also?

[EAMom]

Would your doc be up for keeping your PANDAS dd on abs longer term? either prophylactically...at least for a couple of months to make sure everyone else in the family is really negative (esp. sister is negative post treatment)?

 

Yes, it wouldn't hurt to test the grownups as well!

 

This current trend seems to confirm the suspicion of PANDAS!

[dcmom]

Yes! We saw a child psychiatrist today and she confirmed that my dd seemed to have a clear cut case of PANDAS. I am of course very stressed, but thankful to have a doctor to help us. She prescribed another 10 days of antibiotic, and then a daily lower dose of antibiotic indefinately after that.

 

I guess we just wait (on pins and needles) now to see what happens next.

 

I will follow up with a throat culture in a week for PANDAS daughter. My husband and I will get cultured this week. Do you think I should do a follow up culture on my other daughter (she has strep now), or only if either has symptoms...

[EAMom]

I would definitely do a follow-up culture on sister about 1 week after she is done with abs and also a month later. (We have been culturing our younger dd (non-pandas we hope) about once a month during strep season... also would culture her in the summer if there are any symptoms). If sister is still positive for strep (even w/out sore throat etc.) your PANDAS dd will be affected (even if it's not a full-blown episode). It's llike a kid who's allergic to peanuts...if there is a lot of peanut dust in the air they can still react even if they aren't actually eating them.